Jealous
by AndVioletsAreBlue
Summary: Jasmine is to be the new maid of the Royal Palace where Prince James lives. But will the prince's female admirers let her get away with being too friendly with him? And who is the legendary Princess Kirstin everyone is talking about? Read&Review please!
1. No Nonsense

Jasmine walked into the beautiful garden filled with roses, not knowing what to do. She was a sixteen year old girl with waist-length silky golden hair the colour of crystallised honey and pale green eyes that sparkled like stars were trapped in two big, glittery faded emeralds. She was to be the new maid of the royal palace, and this was her very first day.

"You must be the new maid. Come here and stop stepping on the king's special daffodils." came a crisp voice from behind her.

Jasmine wheeled around to find herself face-to-face with a middle aged woman with a no-nonsense expression. The woman had her mousy brown hair in a tight bun and a maid's white cap over it. Jasmine groaned inwardly. This is going to be a very hard term, she thought.

"Uuhhh… Hello?!" she stammered stupidly. Great. Now she must think of her as a stuttering idiot.

"I am Madeline, your new caretaker. Now please do change out of that unhandy and disgraceful outfit of yours and get in to this." she tossed her a bag of clothing.

Unhandy? Disgraceful? How dare she!

"What's wrong with my dress??" she burst out angrily before she could stop herself. She loved her dress! It was the best one she had, a lilac silky gown with lovely silver roses. A little tattered and stained perhaps, but it was beautiful in Jasmine's opinion. Better than Madeline's anyway, she muttered inwardly to herself.

"What was that?" Madeline scoffed.

Goodness, did she scare me, the girl thought. Could she read minds?

"Maddie? Oh thank goodness you are here!" another girl, a little older than Jasmine, came running onto the pebbled pathway of the garden.

"Greetings , you must be Jasmine Rosetta Snowflakes. I am Lucy-Jane, or you may call me Luce." said the brown eyed girl before Jasmine. "This way."

She led the new girl to a small cabin to get changed. Jasmine felt extremely uncomfortable with her long waves of hair in a cap and she immensely disliked the ugly servant's dress, made of rough navy cotton with a white apron that smelt of stale coffee. Nevertheless she followed Luce in to a sunny patch of the overgrown part of the garden where a line of identical wooden cabins stood by.

"You are sharing your room with me." Lucy told her briskly.

Jasmine had expected nothing too fancy; after all, she was a scullery maid. But _this_??? The inside of the log cabins, which turned out to be the servant's quarters, smelt of freshly mown grass mixed with mouldy cookie crumbs. It was cramped in there because of the bunk bed that took up the whole space, and in the remaining part of the space were two small drawers to put their clothes in.

"Isn't it a little… too small for two people?" Jasmine asked awkwardly.

"Stop complaining and start unpacking! We are late for Princess Kirstin's tea already!" snapped Lucy-Jane.

I definitely don't want to be on the wrong side of Luce, she thought.

"Alright, alright…" Jasmine muttered back. Trying very hard not to snap back at her bossy roommate, Jasmine tried to engage the other into a friendly conversation. "So who's Princess Kirstin?" she asked.

"You don't know who Princess Kirstin is? Oh yeah, you are new aren't you? She is the fiancé of the Crown Prince, Prince James. She is adorable, but... Never mind! Come on, we should be tidying her room by now. Maybe we'll get to see her if we are early." Luce answered rather stiffly.

There was definitely something in her voice that Jasmine couldn't locate.

After a lot of wading through thorny rose bushes and twisting marble corridor, they were at the Northern tower. Panting and sweaty, Jasmine gasped,

"C-c-could we g-go a l-little slower, please?"

"We're nearly there." was all Luce said before she dragged the blond girl up yet another flight of stairs.

Finally, Jasmine thought, we are here. The two maids opened a gigantic polished door and Jasmine gasped in surprise.

"It's _beautiful_! Wow! Look at that huge silk draping on the bed! And the carpet is… so fluffy and bouncy!" squealed Jasmine, her green eyes glittering as she kicked off her hideous servants' shoes and started rolling and jumping on the carpet. It reminded her of her tree house she used to live in. It had a carpet like this, too.

"Get off! The princess might be here soon!" said Luce half-heartedly. She sounded like she longed to join the giggling girl and feel some softness on her blistered feet, too.

"C'mon!" the green eyed girl shrieked.

Suddenly the door opened and there stood a tall boy of eighteen, dark haired and dark eyed, undeniably handsome but an air of mischief in his smile.

"_Y-your M-majesty_!! I, I can explain…" squeaked Lucy.

"There is no need, Lucy-Jane. So you must be the new maid! Nice to see you,..."

"Jasmine." Jasmine said, her chin raised. I must look quite foolish with my hair sliding out of my bun and one of my shoes dangling from my finger, Jasmine thought, but the prince just looked amused.

"Nice to meet you, Jasmine. I am Prince James IVV of the Kingdom of Siglass." He reached out to shake my hand and Lucy looked scandalised, almost jealous.

_Jealous_?? Hmmm…

I felt the door open again and standing in the doorway was a beautiful girl with sun-ripen wheat golden blond hair and piercing sapphire blue eyes, staring at me curiously through her long curly eyelashes. She was extremely pretty and about the same age as the prince. Then she smiled a most dazzling smile at me and shyly curtsied towards the prince. Then in a soft voice she said,

"Good afternoon, Prince James. Hello, Jasmine Snowflakes. You must be my new personal assistant."


	2. New Maid This, New Maid That

Reviews please :D sorry this chapter took so long

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"Your… your personal assistant, Your Majesty? But she is to be the new…, _scullery maid_." Lucy stuttered, spitting out 'scullery maid' with a wrinkled nose, as if it was a dirty word.

"She is young and new to the palace ways; I plan to let this fresh rose blossom assist me around the place." the princess spoke gracefully. "Libby, take the girl to Madam N'Opilion, she needs some make up job on her face." she said, nodding at a stiff-faced old lady by the door.

"Please, Your Majesty, no!" Jasmine cried out hastily, leaving the princess looking puzzled and Libby scandalised. How she hated the disgusting paste on her face and lips, and besides, she was allergic to the stuff! Libby gave her a ferocious glare.

"How there you, little scum!" hissed the old hag, her own face quite plastered with the ghastly pale paste. "Her Royal Highness has just offered you a privilige you little filth had never dreamt of before! You should be grateful for an eternity! You should be kissing her feet in thankfulness! You should b-"

"That's enough, Libby." cut Princess Kirstin, though not sharply. With a swish of ice-blue silk, she turned and spoke to Jasmine, "You may choose to do what you prefer."

"Thank you, my lady." Jasmine said rather meekly, though a smile crept to her face at the scandalised look on Libby's face. The princess and her escort were so much different from each other! she thought. Just as Prince James opened his mouth to break the awkward silence, there was a loud rap on the door and a thin man appeared. He had slick jet black hair plastered to his skull and a neat well-combed goatee that he kept twirling around his index finger.

"Your Highnesses! What a pleasant surprise! How lovely to see you here in Siglass!" cried the man, bowing at the prince but his attention completely on the princess, his voice even oilier than his hair. Anyone can see right through that lie, Jasmine snorted. It's totally obvious that he's faking it, and my two-year-old sister Mary-Rose could do it better than that! But (miraculously) she managed to keep her mouth shut.

"Excuse me Your Majesty but could you spare a moment for us?" the princess asked, sending the prince a coy smile that made her angelic face even more perfect. She glided out of the chamber followed by the greasy guy.

"So… Who might the Oil Oozer be?" Jasmine asked, grinning.

"Duke of Fulgerita." the prince answered, returning the same grin. Luce looked anguished. Clearing her throat louder than necessary the brown eyed girl said,

"Please Your Majesty, your subjects await you." she obviously meant the banquet in the hall, Jasmine thought with a smirk.

"Oh yes. Thank you." the prince said, giving Lucy a small smile. Lucy turned, her eyes bright and cheeks. Jasmine cocked her head slightly, puzzled.

"I shall see you again some other time I hope, Jasmine." Prince James said to me and the gleam in the light brown haired girl's eyes faded rapidly, leaving an empty, rather miserable stare behind. Jasmine felt sorry for her so she left the room hastily.

One week later

Jasmine, carrying a basket of freshly laundered linen for Princess Kirstin, turned the corner, only to be confronted by a group of livid girls. Uh-oh. The blond girl groaned inwardly. The prince's female admirers hissed at her.

"So _you're _the new maid. You're the one with the big mouth who's been panting after him like you have any right to! You filthy, loathsome scumbag!" a girl with wild red hair screeched, closing on to me.

"_The new maid made this cake, isn't it divine? The new maid likes this painting, the one with that knight!_ The new maid, the new maid, the new maid!" another girl, a piggish one with beady black eyes growled.

What on earth are they talking about? Jasmine thought, confused.

"Last week was the first and only time I've ever talked to him, my lady! I've always hated paintings with knights! And how should he know which painting I like?" I yelled back, getting very uncomfortable beneath the itchy wool. "It might have been another maid, er, my lady!"

"You're the only new maid in the palace right now and you know it!" another girl shrieked.

"You little – _Oh, Your Highness_!" she squealed, her voice tone and her face changing so abruptly that it was unnerving. She batted her eyelashes suggestively. "How _absolutely enchanting_ to see you here!"

"Same goes for you, Lady Andrea, Countess de Senilla, Lady Anastasia, Duchess of High Waters." the prince replied.

After the girls had walked away gossiping ("Did you see the way he held my gaze?" "I told you the new bath oil recipe would work!"), Jasmine asked rather fiercely,

"Did you say all those stuff about me liking that weird knight painting in the hallway? How dare you, er, Your Highness!" Tacking the 'Your Highness' on the end of her outburst made her flush even more with awkwardness.

The prince grinned and said apologetically,

"I'm sorry. But that was the only thing I could come up with to make them jealous. I didn't really think of the consequences that you might have to suffer though. I really didn't mean it!" the black haired boy said, faking a guilty look.

"All right then. But those female admirers of yours doesn't seem to know much about you and Princess Kirstin, right?" I asked slyly.

"Oh, I'm sure they do. They're just hoping the same thing would happen again." the prince said confidently.

"What same thing?" I asked, glancing at him curiously.

"My great grandfather, King Lewis II, was supposed to marry Princess Veronica of Nelvgayle, you see, but then he fell in love with Lady Clarice, a kind hearted but quite poor and lowly lady, and married her. Southern Nelvgayle is our ally now but northern won't let it go. No matter how much gold we present them with, they stay as stubborn as a mule." he said sombrely.

"Oh." Jasmine said. "Maybe it isn't about jewels and gold this time, but about – you know, apologizing and accepting." I shouldn't have to explain this to a five-year-old, had they not been raised to get whatever they want, thought Jasmine rather huffily. She was still mad at the Prince for getting her in trouble with the girls.

"Maybe…" the prince looked rather surprised.


End file.
